Sometimes, due to special circumstances, such as road construction or maintenance, snow removal, special events, etc, there is a temporary change, for instance, in the parking restrictions. Vehicle owners who do not comply with these new restrictions may then receive a traffic ticket or see their vehicle towed away.
Therefore, it is important that conventional roadsigns be adapted to display a second message to the public indicating this temporary change of conditions and that said message be clearly visible so as to avoid any of the above situations.
Traditionally, this has been accomplished by putting temporary display signs along the street affected by such change of conditions. The type and dimension of these additional display signs varies greatly from one jurisdiction to another, since these operations are generally under the control of public authorities which function independently. The most often used devices consist of a foldable sawbuck type temporary display sign generally made of wood and painted in a striking colour. Such a sign must be posted and removed each time the parking restrictions are modified, which results in large operation and storage costs. Furthermore, such signs are easily displaceable by unauthorized persons, since they are placed on the ground level. This results in potential damage or loss of the signs.
One alternative used in some jurisdictions consists of posting a cardboard panel displaying on each side thereof the new parking restrictions, the panel being mounted on a soft wooden pole which is simply stuck into the snow back that has to be removed. Obviously, unless a base support is added, this device has an application limited to snow removal operations and suffers from the same disadvantages than the preceding described device. Furthermore, this cardboard panel, although cheaper in manufacture, can only be used once since it is ingested by the snowblower and shredded into pieces. This may create environmental problems and has already been forbidden in some jurisdictions.
One recent attempt to avoid the disadvantages of the above devices is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,775 issued on Jun. 15, 1993 to Singer. There is provided a display device hooked to a conventional sign board comprising a placard and a connecting member fixed to the sign board for hooking the placard, which is provided with a L-shaped slot extending from the upper edge of the placard.
However, this device suffers from many drawbacks. Firstly, it is temporary and requires to be hooked and then removed every time there is a change in parking restrictions. These steps are time consuming and render the whole operation very costly. Secondly, the connecting member requires precise installation on the sign board and may require piercing of additional holes in said board. Thirdly, it results in storage costs and quicker deterioration of the placard given the constant handling. Fourthly, it can be removed by unauthorized persons, resulting in potential damage and/or loss.
There is therefore a need for a display device that does circumvent the inconveniences of the foregoing known devices.